Brume
by Emjen Enla
Summary: [Complete] They were just following the coordinates like they were supposed to. Unfortunately for Anakin, things went downhill from there. [two-shot]
1. Part One

**Title: Brume**

 **Author: Emjen Enla (Fanfiction)/emjen_enla (Wattpad)**

 **Teaser: They were just following the coordinates like they were supposed to. Unfortunately for Anakin, things went downhill from there. [part one of two posted]**

 **Rating: PG-13/T**

 **Canon/Timeline: Legends or Disney; before the Untold Stories**

 **Dominant Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Rex, Aayla Secura, various 501** **st** **clones, featuring a minor appearance by Palpatine**

 **Pairings: underlying Anidala like practically everything I write**

 **Warnings: Anakin & Tusken Raiders (work the rest out for yourself)**

 **Notes:**

 **-This story was requested by amberbalzer0920 on Wattpad an absurdly long time ago. She asked that I write something in which Anakin get hypnotized, I ended up going more with hallucinations so hopefully this turned out the way she wanted it. amberbalzer0920: I'm really sorry for making you wait this long.**

 **-Ever since I finished** ** _Give All My Secrets Away_** **I've wanted to write some nice, mainstream Clone Wars stuff as opposed to all the AUs I've been doing recently. I had this story started and since I've been feeling bad for how long it's been taking, I decided to work on it. I had a lot of fun with Obi-Wan and Mace, who had a role in this story decidedly different from most of my other stories.**

 **-This story is two part. I'll try to get the next part out as soon as possible, but I move back to college on Monday, so I won't have as much time to write. I'll do my best, though, because no matter how busy I am I love sharing stories with you guys. ;)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

* * *

 ** _Part One_**

The tunnel was dark, dusty and old. It jutted down into Glaison's crumbly soil vanishing to darkness. Anakin wrinkled his nose as he stared down into it.

"Are you sure the Separatist signal's coming from in there, Fives?" he asked, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the ARC trooper.

"Yessir," Fives said, looking up from the portable tracker he was carrying. "Positive, sir."

Anakin stared down the tunnel. It didn't seem right, but he'd been told that the coordinates correct and that there was no reason to doubt them by many people, not the least of which was Obi-Wan. Still he was getting a really bad feeling, but he was the Hero With No Fear. He couldn't afford to appear timid, even if it was just in front of his own men.

"Alright, form up," He said. "We're going down there."

The Force prickled warningly in the back of his mind as he took the first steps down the slanting tunnel. This was a strange place for a Separatist shield generator like the one that they had been sent to destroy. Shield generators normally had to be open to air in order to function. Maybe the generator was an extremely powerful model. However, if the Republic Intelligence agents were so certain that the frequency would lead them straight to the generator that was protecting the Sep droid factory thirty klicks distance, it was hard to believe they'd gotten the model wrong. Maybe they just had to pass through the tunnel to get to the generator.

Something about this didn't feel right, maybe they _should_ go back.

The tunnel became pitch black startlingly quickly. When Anakin turned around to look back the way they'd come the light from the surface was gone. Had they been walking longer than he had thought?

Rex was looking back too. "That's a bit odd," the captain said flicking on his helmet lights, the rest of the clones followed suit.

Odd was an understatement, but Anakin didn't point it out. He was too relieved that Rex could see it too. He wasn't sure when it had happened, but at some point over the last few years he'd worked it into his mind that he couldn't be seeing things as long as Rex could see the same thing. Rex was Anakin's touchstone, an inconspicuous way to make sure he wasn't losing his mind. That was something Anakin worried about far more than he wanted to admit, especially since he'd lost Ahsoka.

"Do you think we should turn back, sir?" One of the shinies asked.

Anakin ignored the comment temporarily and turned to Fives. "Do we still have a lock on the generator's location?"

"Yessir," Fives said. "It's reading as straight ahead and down a ways."

"Alright then," Anakin turned to the shiny. "We'll keep moving.

They moved on in near silence. The tunnel changed from relatively well-preserved sentient-made ferrocrete to a damp, cold cave. Though there was no dust in the air, the clones' helmet lights became less and less effective against the dark. Eventually, Anakin drew his lightsaber to give them more light, but he found that the portion of the hilt that contained the crystal was strangely warm. He'd never felt that before and decided not to ignite the thing until he knew what was up with it (after all, malfunctioning lightsabers had a very bad track record of exploding upon ignition).

They walked on, and the light failed even more. Anakin found himself squinting into the darkness, jumping at shadows that looked strangely like Tusken Raiders.

"Wait, wait, wait! Stop a minute!" Fives slid to a stop staring down at the datapad.

"What's wrong, Fives?" Anakin asked and turned away from a particularly Tusken-like shadow.

"We've lost the signal from the base," Fives growled. "Great. I don't know where to go now."

Anakin ran a hand through his hair. A shadow moved in the corner of his vision, but there was nothing there when he turned his head. "That does cause a problem," he said to Fives. "We'll have to-" He trailed off when he looked over the clone's shoulders. The tunnel they'd just walked down was blocked by a stone wall.

 _What?_

"General?" Rex asked. "Is something wrong?"

Anakin pointed over their shoulders. "We just came from that way, didn't we?"

"Yes, sir," Rex looked behind him and didn't show any notice of the wall. "Do you want to go back to the surface?"

Anakin blinked a couple times, the wall stayed. "Are you sure we can?"

"Yes…" Rex looked at Anakin cocking his head. "Are you alright, sir? Do you feel something in the Force? You're acting like the tunnel's blocked off or something."

Anakin frowned at the wall. How could Rex not see it? Or was Anakin looking at the wrong place? "I'm fine," he said. "We should head back to the surface. It's pointless to wander around down here in the dark when we don't know where we're going. We'll head back to the surface and find another way to destroy the generator. Maybe there's another entry point closer to it."

"Siryessir," Rex saluted and turned to the rest of the clones. "You heard him, grunts. Let's move!"

The clones turned and marched towards the wall like there was nothing there. Anakin watched in shock as they walked right through the wall. _What is going on?_

Something tapped his shoulder and he jumped. Rex was standing right next to him. "You ready to move out, sir?"

Anakin blinked a couple more times. There was still a wall. "Yeah," he said. "After you."

"Yes, sir," Rex walked towards the wall and disappeared through it.

Anakin bit his lip. Something definitely wasn't right. Was he dreaming? If he was he definitely didn't remember falling asleep.

"General!" Jesse's voice called, not muffled at all by the wall that appeared to be separating them. "You coming?"

"Yes," Anakin called and stepped towards the wall. He took a deep breath and stepped into it, bracing himself to ram into solid stone.

Nothing happened. He found himself standing on the other side facing the clones. They were watching him, helmeted heads cocked in curiosity.

"Are you sure you're okay, sir?" Jesse asked.

Anakin looked over his shoulder, the wall was gone. He could see the tunnel he'd just left clearly. Something wasn't right. He'd been sure there had been a wall.

He couldn't tell that to the clones, though. "Yeah," he turned back to his men. "Let's move."

* * *

"What the-" Obi-Wan jumped at the sound of Mace Windu's frustrated voice. He exchanged a glance with Aayla Secura, who shrugged.

"Is everything alright?" Obi-Wan called up to the Jedi Master.

Mace made a disgruntled sound. "Obi-Wan, Aayla. Get up here, will you?"

Obi-Wan climbed up onto the top of the stationary AT-TE walker with Aayla behind him. Mace was lying on his stomach towards the front of the vehicle holding a pair of electro-binoculars to his eyes. When Obi-Wan crawled up, Mace handed over the binoculars. "Look over there," he pointed. "Please tell me you don't see what I see."

That was a strange request. Obi-Wan lifted the binoculars to his eyes and focused in on the location Mace had specified. A Separatist shield generator was barely visible beyond the shrubby trees in front of them.

"Well?" Mace asked. "What do you see?"

"It's a Separatist shield generator," Obi-Wan said.

Mace swore under his breath. "You were present when we briefed Skywalker. Does that not look like the generator we sent him to destroy on the opposite side of the Separatist factory?"

Obi-Wan frowned and raised the binoculars to his eyes again. This time he studied every visible centimeter of the generator for the markings that had been in the intelligence images of the generator. "It does," he finally said.

Mace released an even more colorful list of expletives. Aayla, who was lying on Mace's other side, levered herself up on her elbows and held out a hand towards Obi-Wan. "Let me see," Obi-Wan handed her the binoculars and she studied the generator for a few minutes.

"It does look like the same generator," she finally said. "But it can't be, Intelligence says it's on the other side of the base."

"Intelligence has been wrong before," Mace said. "And this generator is in a location closer to the factory than were we sent Skywalker. It's a more practical location,"

"Still, assuming this is the generator we sent Anakin to destroy is a bit hasty," Obi-Wan said. "Intel had images, it's hard to believe they'd have accidently reported the location wrong."

"I know," Mace replied. "But something about this isn't right. The Intel probably flew over this generator. How could they have missed it?"

"That is worrying," Aayla agreed.

"We should do some reconnaissance," Mace said. "We need to check this generator out, and figure out what's going on."

"I'll gather troops," Aayla volunteered. "We'll be ready to move out within the hour."

"Good," Mace nodded and turned to Obi-Wan. "I want you to contact Skywalker and inform him of the situation."

"Are you sure that's necessary?" Aayla asked. "This might be nothing but a little oversight. If that's so, we'll still need him to take out the other generator. It would be unwise to give him more things to worry about when those things are beyond his control."

"If this generator turns out to be the one we thought we sent him to deal with, something we don't know about it going on," Mace said. "He could be walking into a trap. Its best he's aware of that in advance."

"I agree," Obi-Wan said. "Anakin is a magnet for trouble, after all."

"Meet up with us before we leave for recon," Mace ordered.

"I will."

"Good."

* * *

"Are you sure we're not lost, Fives?" Tup asked as they passed yet another junction.

"We're not," Fives replied. "That part of the map is working just fine."

"You're sure?" Tup asked.

"I'm sure," Fives snapped. "Trust me okay?"

"Okay," Tup sighed, the sound was tinny through his helmet. "I just don't want to get lost down here. This place is creepy."

"Just keep marching men," Rex ordered. "We're almost there."

Anakin lagged behind the clones. He wasn't feeling quite right. His vision kept blurring, causing the packed dirt beneath his boots to go out of focus in waves that made him struggle to keep his balance. He was also panting. It had gotten really hard to breathe, but he couldn't quite remember when the feeling had started. Maybe it had been slowly building the entire time they'd been down here. He wondered if he was allergic to something in the tunnels. Maybe it was the same thing that was cutting down their visibility so much.

He hoped that wasn't the case and pressed his lips to keep from wheezing, the last thing he needed was for the clone to go all mother-nuna on him. He had a feeling that if he could just get out of this tunnel everything would be fine.

 _"_ _Master,"_ A voice whispered.

He froze. _No, that's impossible._

 _"_ _Master,"_ the voice called, louder this time.

"General?" Rex had noticed that he wasn't moving anymore. "Are you alright?"

 _"_ _Master!"_ the voice called.

"Do you hear anything?" Anakin asked. He meant to sound casual but his voice came out strained.

"Nosir," Rex said.

 _"_ _Master!"_ the voice called as if in response. _"Come quick!"_ He could tell what direction it was coming from now. The speaker was down the hallway they'd just passed and the voice was very, very familiar.

Anakin took a deep breath and reached a conclusion. He needed to figure out where this voice was coming from and he needed to do it now. "I'll be right back," he said. "I need to check something out."

"Are you sure, sir?" Rex asked. "You're kind of pale, and you've been acting strange. I don't think you're well. Maybe we should keep heading towards the surface and Kix can take a look at you when we get there."

 _"_ _Master!"_ the voice called, it was starting to sound frantic.

Annoyance bubbled up in Anakin's stomach. Why did Rex have to keep questioning him? "I don't need Kix!" He roared. "I'm fine! I'm going to check something out, and I'll back in five minutes. You will take the men and keep going towards the surface!"

Rex visibly jumped. "Sir, I-"

"That's an order, Captain," Anakin snarled.

"Um…Yessir," Rex said, snapping into a salute.

"Good," Anakin said and turned towards the other tunnel and the terrifying familiar voice that was calling out to him.

* * *

"Any luck?" Mace said as Obi-Wan joined the two other Jedi Masters by the small scouting squad they'd gathered.

"Not much," Obi-Wan said. "I can't make contact with Anakin. However, I was able to reach one of his lieutenants. The clone said that Anakin and a small squad of Torrent Company clones headed into some kind of partially-mapped cave system a couple hours ago."

"A _cave_ system?" Mace asked incredulously. "What does Skywalker think he's doing? Seeing the sights?"

"Evidently, the coordinates Intelligence gave us for the shield generator lead into the cave system," Obi-Wan explained.

There was a long pause. "Are any models of shield generators that can work underground?" Aayla asked.

"Not that I know of," Mace muttered. He thought for a minute. "Are the tunnels some kind of shortcut to the generator?"

"That's what I asked the clone," Obi-Wan said. "He wasn't sure, but he thought that the coordinates were actually inside the cave system."

There was long pause while the three masters considered the implications of that bit of information. "Something's not right," Aayla said after several minutes. "You two go check out that other shield generator. I'll stay here and continue trying to make contact with Skywalker. I get the feeling we don't have much time."

"So do I," Mace said. "Obi-Wan? Let's get moving."

* * *

It took Obi-Wan, Mace and the clones about a half hour to reach the shield generator. When they did, they hid in a handy clump of bushes while the clones did some recon and took some readings.

"It's an active shield generator, sirs," one of the clones—a sergeant called Hoop—said.

"We can tell," Mace said, pointing up at the column of plasma rising from the generator and up into the sky.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," Hoop said, his embarrassment coloring the Force. "What I meant to say was that we've done some calculations and this generator is shielding Separatist droid factory."

"How much power is it contributing to the shield around the factory?" Obi-Wan asked.

Hoop turned to look at him. "Actually, sir, if I didn't know better I'd say this is the only generator powering the shield."

Obi-Wan looked at Mace and saw the same suspicions—the same lingering feeling that something had gone wrong—reflected in the master's face. "We could head back to the rest of the troops and see if Master Secura's made contact with Anakin yet," Obi-Wan said. "Anakin and his forces didn't land that far from the generator coordinates so they must have reached them by now. Anakin will be able to confirm or deny if the Intel was good."

"Or we could just blow up this generator and see what happens," Mace said reaching for his lightsaber.

That was such an Anakin thing to say that Obi-Wan was momentarily taken aback, then he remembered the rumors he'd been hearing since he'd become a master and become privy to the really juicy bits of gossip that only the high-ranking Jedi knew. Apparently, in his early twenties, Mace Windu had been rather unorthodox in ways that would give Anakin a run for his money.

"We could do that," Obi-Wan said trying to overcome his shock at seeing that particular rumor might be correct.

"General Windu's idea sounds good to me," Hoop said.

"Good," Mace said. "We have charges don't we?"

"Yessir," Hoop said and another clone a little further away held up a backpack.

"Alright, then give that backpack to General Kenobi," Mace said. "He'll be able to climb the generator faster than any of your men, Hoop. The rest of us will cover him. There aren't many droids here, so we should be able to do this quickly and be back with the rest of the troops and General Secura within the hour."

Hoop relayed the order via helmet comm. Within minutes the men were in position and they were ready to begin their attack. Mace drew his lightsaber and glanced at Obi-Wan. "Ready, Master Kenobi?"

"Yes, Master Windu," Obi-Wan said putting on the backpack and tightening straps.

"When this is over we'll worry about Skywalker," Mace said. "I have a bad feeling involving his part of the mission. The cave, the lack of communication, the existence of this generator. Something isn't right."

"I agree," Obi-Wan said. "Hopefully, by the time we return Master Secura will have made contact with him."

"Hopefully," Mace echoed, but he didn't sound very hopeful. Then he turned to Hoop. "Sergeant, let's move."

As one Obi-Wan, Mace and the clones burst out of the bushes and ran towards the generator. The droids shrieked in surprise and started shooting. Obi-Wan batted down a few with his lightsaber then leaped up onto the generator. He deactivated his lightsaber, clipped it to his belt and pulled out the first charge. He had to hurry; the safety of the rest of the team depended on him.

He was only about halfway through sticking the charges to the outside of the generator when Mace climbed up next to him. "Obi-Wan, give me some charges."

Obi-Wan started and suddenly realized the shooting had stopped. "You destroyed all the droids."

"It was a ridiculously small defense," Mace said. "It was almost like they weren't expecting anyone to try to destroy this generator."

The two Jedi Masters shared a look that encompassed all their ever growing concerns.

"They were able to send a distress call, though," Mace said instead of putting voice to any of their collective worries. "We need to get moving. Let me have some charges."

Mace took an armful of charges from the backpack and moved off to another place on the generator. Within minutes all the charges had been attached to the generator (who cared about conserving resources when trying to do so might mean you failed to destroy your target?). Then they jumped down from the generator and ran with the clones back into the bushes.

They ran until they were atop a nearby hill before turning to look back. The generator stood below them, blinking faintly from the little lights on the charges. Farther in the distance they could see a cloud of dust that signified the approaching droid reinforcements. "Whenever you're ready, Master Kenobi," Mace said.

"As you wish," Obi-Wan said with a smile and pressed the detonator.

The generator vanished into a tremendous explosion than shook the ground and sent up a dust cloud that left Obi-Wan and Mace hacking while the clones stood by silently (and no doubt savored the usefulness of their helmets). When the dust had settled a little, Hoop and the other clones took some readings.

"That brought down the shield, sirs," Hoop finally announced. "The Sep factory is now completely unprotected." The sergeant sounded like he wanted to cheer, but Obi-Wan and Mace were far less enthusiastic.

Something was definitely wrong.

They were proved even more correct when they return to the rest of the Republic troops. Aayla came running out to meet them, something that no self-respecting Jedi Master did unless it was real emergency.

"I made contact with Skywalker's clone captain," Aayla said when she reached them. "He says they entered the caves and traveled for a while before their tracker cut out and they turned back."

Obi-Wan's first thought was that that wasn't so bad, but Aayla wasn't done.

"Captain Rex said that while they were in the caves Skywalker was acting strangely. When they were partway back, he seemed to hear something and said he was going to check it out. He became…extremely agitated…when Captain Rex suggested that perhaps that wasn't a good idea. Skywalker ordered the clones to return to the surface and said that he'd catch up with them in five minutes…that was over an hour ago."

There was a long pause while that information sunk in. Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's…not good."

"Not at all," Mace agreed.

* * *

The voice got louder and more distinct the further Anakin went into the caves. He was pretty sure he'd been running a lot longer than five minutes. Rex would be angry, but Anakin didn't care. He was close to the voice, he was sure.

Plus, he was still angry at Rex. Just because they were friends didn't give Rex the right to argue with Anakin. When it came down to it, Anakin was still the CO and Rex should follow orders regardless of whether or not he thought they were sound.

Somewhere deep down inside, Anakin knew that it wasn't like him to angry at Rex for failing to follow orders. After all, Anakin ignored orders all the time and had spent a lot of time since meeting Rex trying to break through the Kaminoan brainwashing that prevented the clone from thinking about disobedience.

Anakin also knew that even though he wasn't going to win any prizes for emotional control, even he didn't stay angry about something so pointless for this long. Something wasn't right, something was making him angry about things he normally wouldn't mind and keeping him angry for a long period of time. He knew all these things on some level, but he was angry and totally focused on finding the voice. He didn't have time to think about anything else.

He reached another intersection and paused, waiting for the next call. When he heard it he headed in that direction. The voice was starting to sound extremely frantic, like the person was in pain and screaming for help. The voice was also extremely familiar, though Anakin wasn't letting himself think about whose voice it was.

He was trying reach the voice as quickly as he could, but that wasn't proving to be as easy as he'd thought. Firstly, every time he thought he'd just about reached the voice it turned out to be even farther away. That was getting really annoying, but he'd committed to finding it now and he wasn't going to quit (plus, he had no idea where he was and didn't want to admit it to himself).

That wasn't the only problem, though. The air in the tunnels and caves was thick and hard to breathe. His breaths came in harsh, wheezing gasps, and he'd had to stop several times just to catch his breath. There was also the dizzying waves which left him gagging and struggling to stay upright. Thankfully, those moments were lessening the further he went into the cave system. He knew those kinds of things weren't normal and that he should probably worry about them, but right now he was completely focused on the voice.

 _"_ _Master!"_ the voice sounded very close now, like it was coming from around a corner he could see just ahead. Vaguely, he wondered how he could still see when he was klicks beneath the surface and there was no light. It should have been pitch black, but it wasn't. He was distracted by another call from the voice. The voice was becoming so familiar the effort it took not to think of who it belonged to was making him sick to his stomach.

He reached the corner and slowed to a stop. _"MASTER!"_ the voice screamed sounding like it was being murdered. It sounded like it was just around the corner, maybe he had finally reached his destination.

He took a deep, wheezy breath and turned the corner.

Around the corner, the passage opened into a huge cavern. Actually, cavern was probably the wrong word because it implied the space was natural. This space anything but natural. It was shaped in a perfect right triangle and the black stone walls were covered in strange symbols that glowed faintly red. Aside from that small light, it was completely dark, but somehow Anakin could see everything perfectly.

Everything included the hundreds of Tusken Raiders lined up inside the space, gaderffii sticks brandished and masks focused on him. Anger boiled in Anakin's blood, stronger than anything he had felt since that night on Tatooine when his mother had died. What were these monsters doing down here?

 _"_ _MASTER!"_ the frantic voice called from further into the room. Anakin shoved the horrid memories dredged up by the Tuskens aside and searched for the source. His boiling blood ran cold when he saw it.

In the center of the room was a dais raised to a level above the Tuskens' heads. Two pillars rose up from it, covered in the glowing red marks. Attached to each pillar was a thick metal chain which was cuffed to the arms of a limp being. Anakin gritted his teeth as the urge to kill every Tusken in the room rose up inside him.

Hanging in the chains, beaten, brutalized and bloody, was Ahsoka.

* * *

 **Favorite, follow and review, please!**

 **Emjen**


	2. Part Two

**_Part Two_**

The gunship landed in a dusty field surrounded by 501st troops and walkers. Obi-Wan and Mace stepped off and were greeted by the blue-and-white armored form of Captain Rex. "General Windu, General Kenobi," the captain said snapping into a sharp salute. "It's good to see you, sirs." The clone's presence in the Force screamed that the statement was no formality, Rex was indeed very happy to see them. In fact, the normally cool and collected officer felt nearly frantic.

"It's good to see you too, Captain," Obi-Wan said allowing the clone to save face by not pointing those feelings out. "What is the situation here?"

"We have an unofficial HQ in one of the walkers, sirs," Rex said crisply. "We can talk there."

"Without anyone overhearing" went without saying.

Obi-Wan and Mace followed Rex across the field and up into one of the AT-TE Walkers. Inside it was completely unmanned aside from two veteran clones, one in blue Torrent Company armor and the other in ARC trooper armor. The two clones were sitting helmetless in the seats stretching along the walls of the walker's crew compartment. They got to their feet and saluted when the two Jedi and Rex came in.

"At ease," Mace said and the clones relaxed slightly.

"This is Jesse and this is Fives," Rex said gesturing to the Torrent Company trooper and the ARC in turn. "The three of us were part of the team General Skywalker took into the cave system. Jesse and Fives are some of the oldest veterans of the 501st and they know General Skywalker fairly well. I thought their input might be helpful in this matter."

Mace nodded curtly. "Can you fill us in on exactly what happened with Skywalker? Where is he now?"

The three clones looked at each other. "Good question, sir," Fives said.

Mace raised his eyebrows and waited for them to go on.

"We don't know where General Skywalker is," Rex said, his Force presence became even more frantic when he admitted this. "We think he's still in the caves and we have men down there scouting, but we can't communicate with them once they're inside. As far as we know, no one has found him."

"Why did he even go off on his own?" Mace said.

"I'm…not exactly sure, sir," Rex said. "It seemed like he'd heard something, but none of the rest of us could hear it."

"He looked kinda weird too," Fives cut in, earning a harsh sideways look from Rex. "Sorry, Captain."

"Define 'weird,' Trooper," Mace said carefully.

"His pupils were dilated," Fives explained. "Granted, it was pretty dark, but they seemed bigger than they should have been."

"That wasn't the only thing," Jesse agreed. "Earlier, when we decided to turn around he was acting really strange. He was acting like he thought we were going to just walk into a wall or something. His pupils were really large then too, and he had this sort of glazed look to his face. It was kind of creepy."

Obi-Wan and Mace looked at each other. Neither said anything for only long minute, then Mace pursed his lips and turned back to the clones. "Captain," he said. "Do you agree with these troopers' testimonies?"

"Yessir," Rex said quickly.

"And do you think that there is any chance that Knight Skywalker really did hear something and was just delayed in returning?" Mace pushed on.

"Some chance, sir," Rex said. "But he has been gone a long time. I personally believe that he must have gotten into some trouble."

Mace looked to Obi-Wan for an opinion. "With my limited knowledge I would agree with him," Obi-Wan said. "Something has gone wrong."

"I agree as well," Mace said. "We'll need to go in after him. Perhaps Master Kenobi can find him using the Force."

This acknowledgment of the bond Obi-Wan and Anakin shared was somewhat humiliating since Obi-Wan knew that their overly strong bond bordered on an unacceptable attachment. However, Anakin was missing and, though Obi-Wan wasn't as adept at using the bond for tracking purposes as Anakin was, he was pretty sure he could find his former apprentice in the cave systems. "I can do that," he said.

"Good," Mace said. "Then we'll leave immediately."

* * *

Five minutes before the triangular room had been filled with Tusken Raiders armed and ready to fight. Now there were only two beings alive in the echoing space. One was an injured and sobbing Togruta teenager chained between two pillars. The other was a lord of death standing in the middle of the silent battlefield with an ignited lightsaber.

He stood in silence, not moving either towards the Togruta or away from her. In that moment he didn't really feel like Anakin Skywalker. He felt like something else, something far more powerful, something that could end the War and ensure peace. Something that could ensure that no one ever dared to hurt anyone he cared about again.

Some undetermined amount of time passed before that strange feeling of dark invincibility began to wear off and Anakin Skywalker remembered Ahsoka.

Slowly, Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and stepped towards the dais. He didn't think of anything but his padawan— _former_ padawan—as he vaulted up onto the dais and knelt down before the girl.

"Ahsoka?" he whispered reaching out hesitantly, afraid to touch her. "Ahsoka can you hear me?"

She moaned and turned her head towards him. "Master,"

Now he really did touch her, stroking her cheek with careful fingers. "Snips. I'm here. It's going to be alright."

Her breath escaped her in a sob, and Anakin knew things were bad. Ahsoka didn't cry. "Hurts."

Carefully, almost afraid to look, Anakin surveyed her. Bruises and cuts covered her arms and the exposed part of her back. The entire left side of her face was soaked in blood. On closer inspection he realized that this was because her left mortal had been smashed by some blunt object. Anakin's chest tightened. Togruta balance was centered in their mortals. With one compromised Ahsoka wouldn't be able to walk. He'd have to carry her out.

He refused to allow his mind to wander beyond the present. He refused to wonder if Togruta mortals could be repaired. He refused to consider the fact that Ahsoka might never walk again.

"Don't worry, Snips," he said instead, resolutely pushing all thoughts of the future out of his mind. "We're going to get you out of here."

Ahsoka's wrists were attached to the pillars by two lengths of chain. Anakin gave each one an experimental tug just to test if they were lose. Unsurprisingly, they weren't so he drew his lightsaber. The hilt was now so hot that it burned his flesh hand through the glove, but it had ignited without exploding when he'd used it on the Tuskens so he figured it would be fine. The blue blade leaped to life, but the light it added to the room was puny at best. Anakin found that ridiculously irritating, but he shoved the feeling aside and focused on the chains. He lifted the lightsaber to cut the chains, but instead of slicing evenly through, the blade simply bounced off without effect.

Anakin tried several more times, but the chains wouldn't cut. Rage boiled up in his stomach and he wanted to scream. He controlled himself, barely, and only for the sake of Ahsoka, who hung next to him in a state of semi-consciousness. He took a deep breath and wondered vaguely why he had gotten so angry about something so insubstantial. Okay, maybe his weapon failing to cut through a simple chain wasn't insubstantial, but he was the Hero with No Fear, he'd find another way to get Ahsoka free.

He studied the chains more closely. His lightsaber hadn't made any visible marks—again the rage rose up and again he pushed it down—but lightsaber resistant metals were not unheard of. He wondered if his lightsaber was hot enough to melt the metal. He decided it was worth a try and carefully lifted the blade until it just touched the chain. Then he waited.

He wasn't sure how many minutes passed, he was just beginning to wonder if he could chance looking to see if his new plan was working when he heard soft footsteps and voices coming from the passage he'd used to enter the room. Instantly, all thoughts of melting the chains were gone from his mind. He pulled the lightsaber away from the chains and pivoted quickly to face the passage in a low crouch with the lightsaber held out in front of him. Dim light appeared in the passage and five figures stepped into the room.

They were more Tusken Raiders.

* * *

Something wasn't right about the caves.

The further Obi-Wan walked into the caves the surer of it he became. He couldn't quite put on a finger on what was wrong, but something was. He glanced at Mace, who walked alongside him and then looked over his shoulders at Rex, Fives and a medic called Kix who were bringing up the rear. They looked and felt tense but they didn't seem to have any more idea what was going on than Obi-Wan did.

"How is your connection with Skywalker?" Mace asked in an undertone.

"It's a little weak actually," Obi-Wan admitted. "And cloudy. It feels like something is blurring our connection."

"That's strange," Mace muttered. "Can you still find him?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "But I think we'd better hurry, just in case this get worse."

They moved on and the lingering feeling that something was wrong kept getting stronger. The darkness seemed to close in around them. Something moved in the corner of Obi-Wan's vision. He turned just in time to see the looming shadow of Darth Maul run along the wall.

Obi-Wan couldn't keep from reacting. He had his lightsaber out and ignited before he even thought. He angled the blade along the walls looking for the Sith Lord. He didn't see anything. The walls were smooth and presented no place to hide.

"What did you see?" Mace asked.

"You didn't see him?" Obi-Wan asked. Vaguely he noticed that he sounded just a little too close to hysterical.

"See who?"

"Maul!"

Mace raised an eyebrow. "I didn't."

"He's here!" Obi-Wan insisted.

"Well if he is he obviously moved on," Mace said in a tone of voice that suggested he didn't actually believe Obi-Wan. "We'll keep our eyes open, but right now we need to move."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath and released some of his anxiety into the Force. He cursed himself for losing his cool. He was supposed to be model of emotional control. As he calmed down he became aware of the extreme heat radiating out of the hilt of his lightsaber and into his hand. It was ignited and looked normal enough, but the heat was still worrying. Obi-Wan deactivated the weapon and hoped that he hadn't just made a choice between life and death.

They kept walking. It took Obi-Wan several minutes to calm down enough to hone back onto Anakin's Force signature, but once he did they made quick progress. They'd been walking for another ten minutes before Obi-Wan saw the shadowy figure of Darth Maul skitter along the wall again. "There!" he said pointing.

There was a long pause. "Obi-Wan, there was nothing there," Mace said.

"You didn't look fast enough!" Obi-Wan argued.

Rex cleared his throat. "Sorry to break it to you, sir, but I was looking the same direction as you and I didn't see anything either."

"But…" Obi-Wan looked around. He'd been certain the shadow had been there. It had looked so real.

"Listen, Obi-Wan," Mace said. "There's a possibility that—" Then his head snapped to the right like he'd just seen something move in his peripheral vision. He swore aloud. "That's impossible!"

"Did you see him?" Obi-Wan asked biting back the _"See I told you!"_ that wanted to follow.

Mace's face twisted in concentration. "No, I didn't," he said. "I saw..." he trailed off and frowned harder.

He stood this way for several minutes. Then he turned suddenly to Obi-Wan. "Obi-Wan, I need you clear my mind."

Obi-Wan blinked. "What?"

"Something's not right," Mace said. "I have a theory about what's going on, but I need your help to test it."

"Okay…"

"I need you to force the Light Side into my mind," Mace said stepping closer to Obi-Wan. "I'll do the same for you. Make sense?"

"I think so…" Obi-Wan replied.

"Good," Mace raised his hands to touch Obi-Wan's temples. Obi-Wan took a deep breath and did the same.

Without another word the two Jedi Masters dove into the Force and into each other's minds. Obi-Wan was startled to find Mace's mind full of some kind of steadily creeping black smoke. He was shocked, but only for a split second, then instinct took over and he pushed forwards, drawing the Light around himself and launching it at the smoke. The Darkness fought momentarily but then pulled back, Obi-Wan kept up his assault until he'd driven it from Mace's mind. Obi-Wan was vaguely aware that the same battle was taking place in his own mind with Mace as the warrior.

Obi-Wan wasn't sure how much time passed before he was confident he'd completely banished the smoke from Mace's mind. He pulled back into his own mind and felt Mace do the same. He allowed his psyche a moment to settle and then opened his eyes.

The difference was astonishing. The tunnel seemed a million times brighter. The clones' headlamps drove away so much more of the dank gloom than they had before. It was also much easier to breathe, something Obi-Wan hadn't even noticed he was having difficulty with until now. "Well," he said. "That's surprising."

Mace surveyed the tunnel with a critical eye. "The Dark Side," he said quietly.

Obi-Wan had reached the same conclusion, there was no other explanation for the strange smoke that had been inhabiting their minds. "There must be some kind of Sith power or spell at work muddying our perceptions," he said. "Making us see things that aren't there."

There was a long pause while they both mulled over that new bit of information. Then Mace took a deep breath. "That means this is a trap," he said.

A surge of complete un-Jedi-like fear rushed through Obi-Wan. He took a deep breath and let the emotion go, it would not do to lose control in a place seeped in the Dark Side. "We need to find Anakin," he said. "Now."

"I agree," Mace said. "Lead the way."

* * *

Without the smoke marring his perceptions, Obi-Wan found tracking his former apprentice much easier. He jogged through the tunnels, taking the turns with little deliberation. He tried to move as quickly as possible. Anakin had been alone in these Dark Side-corrupted tunnels for hours. Now that he knew to be aware of it, Obi-Wan could feel the smoke trying to seep through the cracks in his mental defenses, he didn't want to know how long Anakin could have held out.

They rounded another corner and ran down a long passage. "We're getting close," Obi-Wan said. "I think he's up ahead."

"Good," Mace said. "Let's get him and get out of here."

They turned a sharp, almost hidden corner and found themselves in a large, open, obviously sentient-made room. The clones' headlamps flickered along obsidian-black walls lined with hieroglyphics and came to rest on a raised dais in the center of the room. On the dais, between too large pillars crouched a dark-clothed figure with a blue-bladed lightsaber held at the ready.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan called relief flooding his body.

Anakin didn't react.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan called again and took a step forward. Anakin angled the lightsaber in a more threatening position but still said nothing.

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan moved a few more steps closer. Anakin shifted again, rising from his crouched position into one more conducive for attack. A massive feeling of foreboding began to grow in Obi-Wan's stomach. "Anakin, are you alright?"

"You aren't welcome here." Anakin said, his voice deep and threatening.

Mace moved forward to stand next to Obi-Wan. "What do you mean, Skywalker?" he asked. "We're here to get you. You've been down here a long time."

"I won't let you hurt her anymore," Anakin said like Mace hadn't even spoken.

"Hurt who?" Mace said. "You're not making any sense."

"Anakin," Obi-Wan moved even closer. "We need to go. Turn off your lightsaber and get down from there."

Anakin pointed the lightsaber at him and his face contorted in an ugly half-sentient snarl. "Get away!" he shouted. "I swear, if take one more step I'll rip your limb from limb!"

Obi-Wan jumped, shocked to stillness by the promise of extreme violence, but then he noticed something that he hadn't been close enough to notice before.

Anakin's eyes were wide and glassy. His pupils were dilated until they took up all his irises except for tiny rings of blue around the outsides.

Clearly, whatever Anakin was seeing, it wasn't them.

* * *

The Tusken hadn't moved since Anakin had threatened to kill it, but Anakin figured that was only a temporary thing. After all, there was no way the monsters were going to let him carry off their prisoner just because he'd made a couple threats. He wondered whether he should dispose of the Tuskens now or continue attempting to free Ahsoka.

However, his decision was made for him. There were two Tuskens closer to him than the other three. One of the closer ones fell back to stand with the other three. The last one moved closer. Its _gaderffii_ stick was held loosely in one hand, not raised in a defensive position and the other was held out in a pleading gesture, but Anakin wasn't fooled. He knew an attack when he saw one.

"You're going to regret that," he said and leaped towards his quarry.

* * *

Obi-Wan stared up and studied his volatile former apprentice. Anakin stood on the edge of the dais, body angled like he was trying to protect something, but the platform behind him was completely empty save for two ominously glowing pillars. Obviously the Sith trap had completely consumed Anakin's concept of reality. They needed to get out him out of here and fast.

Footsteps crunched on the floor as Mace retreated moved backwards to stand with the clones. Obi-Wan heard them exchange whispered words but didn't pay much attention beyond that. He stepped a meter or so closer to Anakin, one hand held out in supplication. "Anakin, whatever you're seeing, it isn't real."

Anakin's face contorted even more. "You're going to regret that," he said. The next instant he was leaping off the dais, lightsaber held over his head.

Obi-Wan fumbled for his lightsaber. The hilt still burned like fire—probably from the crystal reacting to the creeping Darkness—but it ignited when Obi-Wan pressed the ignition. He barely got the blade up in time to block Anakin's blow. The impact jarred his bones, but he pushed Anakin away and stepped back a few steps to put some distance between them. "Anakin!"

Anakin lunged again, raining a storm of blows onto Obi-Wan's defenses. It was slightly terrifying. He and Anakin had sparred many times but they always pulled their punches to some extent. Now Anakin was truly going for the kill.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan yelled hoping to break through the Darkness even a little and reach his friend. "Anakin, it's me!"

Anakin just kept coming.

"Obi-Wan!" Mace called from the place where he still stood with the clones.

"What!" Obi-Wan wondered why the other Master wasn't helping him subdue Anakin.

"Can you keep him distracted?" Mace called.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Obi-Wan snapped as he ducked under a strike that would have taken his head off.

The duel went on, but Obi-Wan was at a distinct disadvantage. Anakin was whole-heartedly devoted to the idea of ending Obi-Wan where he stood, but Obi-Wan didn't want to hurt Anakin. Therefore there was little he could do beyond avoid and redirect Anakin's attacks.

Just as he was about to try to get far away from Anakin and regroup enough to think of a plan, Mace swooped in. Before either combatant could react, the Master grabbed Anakin's flesh arm just above the elbow. Mace was holding something in his other fist, which he pressed against Anakin's arm and pushed a button on the top of it. Anakin shrieked in anger and pain and lashed out with the Force. They all went flying across the cavern.

Obi-Wan hit a wall so hard, all the air his lungs abandoned him with a sudden whoosh. He managed a single breath before something invisible closed around his neck and cut off his air supply. He struggled for air, clawing at his neck though there was nothing there. Brief, frantic glances to the left and right revealed that Mace and the clones were in similar predicaments.

Anakin stood in the center of the cavern, lightsaber hanging at his side. His flesh hand was lifted and his fingers were curled into a pincher-like motion. Anakin was telekinetically choking them. Terror for his former apprentice filled Obi-Wan. He wasn't blind to Anakin's aggressive tendencies, but he'd never seen the boy draw so obviously on the Dark Side before.

"You will not take her from me!" Anakin snarled. "I will not lose her again!"

 _What?_ Obi-Wan struggled in a wheezing gasp of air. "Anakin…" he croaked.

Anakin took a step towards them, then swayed haphazardly. He recovered his balance, but the pressure on Obi-Wan's throat lessoned. He sucked in a couple more breaths. "Anakin!" he cried with a little more volume. "You don't want to do this!"

"You don't have the right to hurt her," Anakin said, but there was now an audible slur to his voice. He tried to walk again, but stumbled and collapsed to his knees.

When Anakin's hand dropped, the choking stopped. Obi-Wan fell to his knees as well but began crawling towards the boy almost immediately. "Anakin?"

Anakin tried to get back up, but couldn't. He bent over, hands braced on the floor and panted heavily. He lifted his head laboriously to level one last glare at Obi-Wan. Then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. His lightsaber rolled from his limp fingers and deactivated itself a meter or so away.

Despite still being short of breath, Obi-Wan reached Anakin within seconds. He rolled the boy over and checked for a pulse. He found it strong and steady. He sighed in relief.

Another sigh echoed above his head. He looked up to see a panting Mace standing over him with Rex. "I'm glad that worked."

"What worked?" Obi-Wan asked.

Mace held something up. In the light of Rex's headlamps Obi-Wan could see that it was a medical hypo. That must have been what Mace had been holding when he'd charged Anakin. "You drugged him?" Obi-Wan asked.

Mace nodded. "Sedative," he said. "When we came in and I saw how he was acting I figured we might have to sedate him. That's why I went to talk to the medic."

Obi-Wan felt himself turning red in embarrassment. He'd thought Mace was just leaving him to deal with Anakin alone, but in reality the other Master was thinking ahead. "Oh," he said numbly.

Mace knelt down next to Anakin and checked him over. "The dose I gave him was a strong one," he said. "I honestly expected him to drop within seconds of the injection. When he didn't I wasn't sure what to think."

"He was amazingly resistant," Kix said coming to stand over them as well.

"He was using the Force," Obi-Wan said.

"He was using the Dark Side." Mace said.

The look on the Master's face proved that that was not something he was just going to write off. Tension clenched at Obi-Wan's stomach.

"We should get him out of here," Kix said, probably catching on to the change of mood. "The sooner we're out of these tunnels, the happier I will be."

"That, I think we can all agree on," Obi-Wan said.

* * *

Within a few hours Anakin was settled into a bed in the medbay of a Jedi Cruiser. The clone medics who looked him over ensured Obi-Wan and Mace that there was nothing physically wrong. Anakin was still hooked up to a couple monitors to keep track of his vitals just in case he reacted badly to the sedatives, but there was little to do but wait for him to wake up and hope that he was more in tune with reality when he did.

All Obi-Wan wanted to do was sit by Anakin's bedside and wait for the boy to wake up. He couldn't get the image of Anakin leaping at him from the dais out of his head and he wanted to watch the boy sleep peacefully for a while.

Unfortunately, Mace had other ideas. Within minutes of the clones declaring Anakin's condition noncritical he dragged Obi-Wan into one of the private medbay rooms for the talk Obi-Wan had been dreading.

"I don't even know how to proceed," Mace said. "I have never seen that level of Dark Side use from a Jedi who hasn't already turned."

"He hasn't turned," Obi-Wan said. "That was the tunnels affecting him."

"It seemed pretty internalized to me."

"Mace," Obi-Wan snapped. "Anakin and I work together constantly. Don't you think I'd know if he'd turned to the Dark Side?"

"You may be a bit too attached to him to admit it to yourself," Mace said.

Obi-Wan didn't even want to think about whether or not Mace was right. He knew that if he allowed himself to even consider things like that some fundamental part of his friendship with Anakin would change and he…didn't want that to happen. "He hasn't turned," he insisted.

"He tried to take your head off, Obi-Wan," Mace pointed out, "then choked us all."

"He was hallucinating," Obi-Wan said. "He didn't know it was us."

"That doesn't help your argument," Mace said. "That just proves that he's willing to use the Dark Side on his enemies, which isn't any better."

"Mace…" Obi-Wan took a deep breath and tried to gather his thoughts. "He was lost in some kind of Sith trap, hallucinating and drowning in the Darkness. That doesn't prove anything about whether or not he'd use the Dark Side when in his right mind." He refrained from bringing up Anakin's brief dabbling with the Darkness on Mortis. Unfortunately, Mace and Yoda were the only Jedi on the Council who knew the whole story of that strange mission and Obi-Wan was pretty sure Mace hadn't forgotten.

Mace didn't mention Mortis, though, which was different than saying he wasn't thinking about it. "I'm going to take this matter up with Master Yoda," he said. "I think that this is too important to be ignored."

Obi-Wan wanted to argue that Yoda didn't need to know, but Mace had already accused him of being emotionally compromised and it wouldn't be good to prove the Master right. Plus, Mace outranked him. If Mace wanted to tell Yoda there was nothing Obi-Wan could do to stop him. Obi-Wan sighed. "Very well, Master."

Mace gave him a curt nod. "Report to me when he wakes," he said and left the medbay.

* * *

Anakin didn't regain consciousness so much as he floated up to it through a mass of thick liquid. His head felt heavy and light at the same time. His mouth was dry and his tongue was swollen and unwieldy. He shifted slightly on a hard, scratchy bed that could only be in a medbay and groaned.

"Anakin?" a voice asked.

Anakin tried to open his eyes but his eyelids were too heavy. He groaned again.

A hand settled on his shoulder. "Anakin. Do you know me?"

Vaguely Anakin thought that that was an extremely strange thing to say, but he didn't bother giving the matter anymore thought. "Obi-Wan?" he tried to answer the question but the name came out so slurred it was nearly impossible to understand.

Apparently it was clear enough for Obi-Wan, though. The hand began patting and rubbing his shoulder almost frantically. "That's right. That's good, Anakin," Obi-Wan said. "Can you open your eyes and look at me?"

Anakin pried his eyes open and squinted at the blurred shape above him, trying to get his former master's face to come into focus. Eventually his vision cleared enough that he could make out the tense set of Obi-Wan's mouth and his worried eyes. Obviously, something had gone wrong. Anakin wondered if he'd gotten another concussion or if he'd simply been electrocuted again.

Obi-Wan didn't say which. He simply studied Anakin's face with intense focus. Then he relaxed and heaved out a relieved sigh. "They're back to normal."

"What?" Anakin asked groggily.

"Your eyes," Obi-Wan said. "Your pupils are normal sized again."

Anakin wanted to ask Obi-Wan to explain what he meant by that, but his eyelids were getting heavier by the second. His head hurt and thinking was way too much effort right now. He just wanted to go back to sleep for a couple hours and worry about what had his former master so nervous later.

However, there was something else. Something prickled in the back of his mind. He couldn't fall asleep now, there was something extremely important he should be doing instead.

He forced his drooping eyes open again. "What happened?" he asked putting a huge amount of effort into the pronunciation of each word. They came out with comparatively limited slur.

Obi-Wan's face froze. Even through the fuzziness in his head Anakin knew that that was bad. He opened his mouth to ask what had happened but Obi-Wan pushed on before Anakin could put the words together. "Not now, Anakin. I'm sure you're tired; you were dosed with a lot of sedatives," he patted Anakin's shoulder again. "You get some sleep. We'll talk about the tunnels later."

Tunnels. The word sprung associations. Suddenly, he remembered the tunnels on Glaison. He remembered the Tusken Raiders. He remembered…

"Ahsoka!"

A rush of adrenaline overcame the lingering effects of the drugs long enough for him to sit bolt upright, but wasn't quite enough to starve off the massive head rush that came afterwards. Anakin swayed and would have fallen off the bed entirely if Obi-Wan hadn't been there to catch him.

"Easy," Obi-Wan said. "Don't push yourself. The drugs aren't completely out of your system." He started to try to push Anakin back down onto the bed.

Anakin wasn't having any of that. He braced a hand against the overly firm mattress and managed to stay sitting mostly under his own power. His head was still spinning. He squeezed his eyes closed and bowed his head while he tried to fight past it. "Where's Ahsoka?" he asked. "Did you get the chains off her?"

The arms helping him stay upright loosened slightly, and Anakin didn't think that was because he was doing a good enough job at pretending he wasn't about to face plant onto the bed. "What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.

How did Obi-Wan not know? Anakin's stomach clenched. "Ahsoka," he said. "She was that room in the tunnels. She was chained to the pillars, and they…those _monsters_ were torturing her."

There was a very long pause. Slowly Obi-Wan moved and sat down on the bed. He readjusted his grip so he was holding Anakin by the shoulders. It was a strange gesture for Obi-Wan—one that reeked of attachment—so Anakin knew this was going to be bad. He lifted his head to look at Obi-Wan even as the knots in his stomach tightened. He wondered if he was about to throw up.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan said very softly and gently, like he was trying to dull the impact. "We found you standing on a dais in a triangular room full of Sith hieroglyphics. You were alone. Ahsoka wasn't there."

It took several seconds to sink in.

"That's…that's impossible," Anakin breathed. "She…She was there, I know she was. I saw her!"

Obi-Wan's face looked very sad. "Those tunnels were awash with a kind of Darkness that invades your mind and makes you see things that aren't there," he said. "You were hallucinating, Anakin."

"But…" Anakin's gaze dropped to stare blankly at the plain white blankets covering the bed. "But she was there. I know she was."

Obi-Wan pursed his lips. "She was never there, Anakin. It was just the Dark Side playing on your fears."

Logically Anakin knew Obi-Wan was right. Something about the whole thing had been strange, and Tusken Raiders didn't really exist off Tatooine. Plus injuries like the ones Ahsoka had had would have interfered with her ability to sense the Force. She probably wouldn't have been able to tell that he was around. She definitely wouldn't have been able to focus enough to augment her voice with the Force and call to him.

So, yes, he understood, but that was different than saying he believed it. He understood he'd been hallucinating, but it had felt so real. He'd been certain he'd found Ahsoka bleeding in an underground tunnel system after being tortured by an army of the biggest monsters in the universe. He had felt her in the Force, exactly as she would have been if she'd been real. It had been terrible and scary, but he'd also been strangely happy. He'd found her; she had no longer been a lost child wandering around somewhere in the galaxy. He'd been ready to take her back to troops and have someone fix her up, then he would never let her out of his sight again.

But it had been an illusion. He'd been imaging it. That was the worst part, the part that was the hardest to accept. It wasn't that he'd been influenced by the Dark Side and his senses had steered him wrong. It was because for a painfully brief period of time he'd had Ahsoka back and then she'd been cruelly snatched away.

He would have started crying, but such displays of emotion would not go over well with Obi-Wan. The last thing Anakin needed was to hand out more proof about how terrible he was at the whole "no attachments" thing.

So he stared down at the mattress and bottled the emotions up inside for the time when it would be safe to express them. When he had significantly gained control of himself he asked, "How did you get me out of there?"

"Oh, just some teamwork between Master Windu and myself," Obi-Wan said. "Nothing much."

 _And yet I somehow ended up sedated._ Anakin thought. Obviously, there was more to that story than Obi-Wan was telling. Anakin didn't ask, though, he figured that if Master Windu had been involved he'd get lectured for the incident by the Council sooner rather than later.

The thought was like another weight dumped onto his shoulders, dragging him down and making it that much harder to bottle up the emotion. He didn't want to talk anymore. He just wanted Obi-Wan to go away and leave him in peace.

Maybe his feelings seeped into the Force, or maybe Obi-Wan was as exhausted by this conversation as Anakin was, but either way Obi-Wan chose this minute change the subject.

"You should rest," he said. "We can talk about the full particulars when you're feeling better. The Council will be very interested as well."

It always came back to the Council. Anakin's inner monologue where they were concerned was always tangled with numerous vulgar swear words these days. Still, he wanted to be left alone so he lay back down and let Obi-Wan tuck him back in.

When there was no other possible reason for Obi-Wan to continue loitering, the Jedi Master put a gentle hand on Anakin's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Anakin," he said quietly.

Anakin wasn't sure how to respond or even if he wanted to. He rolled onto his side with his back to Obi-Wan and pulled the blankets over his head. Silence filled the room for several minutes, then Obi-Wan turned and left.

Anakin waited until he was sure the medbay clones and droids thought he was asleep before he let himself cry.

* * *

Hoodwinking the Jedi was such fun.

As Mace Windu reported on the happenings on Glaison, Darth Sidious let his eyes get big and his jaw drop. He let his face mold itself into a perfect expression of shock, one he'd spent years perfecting under the guise of mild-mannered Sheev Palpatine of Naboo.

"Oh, that's terrible," he said in a shocked and worried tone when the Jedi was finished. "Is young Anakin alright?"

"He seems fine," Windu said grudgingly. "Once he arrives on Coruscant, he'll stay under surveillance in the Halls of Healing for a time, however, the healers are confident the worst is past."

There was distrust in Windu's voice, distrust of Anakin Skywalker. The Jedi Master probably wasn't even aware of it, but it was there. Sidious smiled internally. His plan had worked perfectly.

Granted Windu hadn't said much about what had happened when he and Kenobi had found Anakin in the cave that made Glaison's Sith burial grounds, but Windu's manner said enough. Anakin had obviously done what many other Force-users before him had and succumbed to his aggressive feelings to fight off whatever enemies he'd encountered in the midst of his hallucinations. It was perfect.

Sidious still would like to know exactly what the boy had seen, but Windu wasn't saying. The Sith Lord could wait, though, he was nothing if not patient. Eventually, Anakin would be released from confinement in the Temple and—fed up with the Jedi's suspicion—would run to spill his soul to his dear, old mentor Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. When that happened, Sidious would know everything.

That was a moment to look forward to. Sidious was ridiculously eager to know what horrors the combination of the Dark Side and Anakin's psyche had come up with. However, he did have other things to worry about right now. Distracting Windu and the other Jedi from the truth was the top of the list.

The Jedi Master had gone on to discuss the shield generator. It really was too bad the Jedi had discovered that ruse. It would have been nice to not have to deal with the cover-ups but he was prepared anyway, so it would be no problem. After all, it wasn't like the droid factory on Glaison was that crucial, the Confederacy could afford to lose it.

Of course Lord Tyranus thought otherwise but he always thought otherwise. The old fool was a fairly decent strategist, but he knew next to nothing of long term manipulation. However, as annoying as it was, it was actually helpful to Sidious. He couldn't explain to his current apprentice that the entire charade on Glaison had been to lure Anakin Skywalker down into the tunnels where the boy would be overcome by the Dark Side and inadvertently drive an even larger wedge between himself and the Jedi Council, while hopefully picking at a psychological scab or two.

But Sidious kept that part of the plan to himself. While Tyranus was woefully bad at working out his master's plans, if given enough information he would be able to figure out that Sidious' plans for Anakin would involve the eventual replacement (in this case synonymous with death) of his current apprentice. Both Sith knew that Tyranus was no match for Sidious in a fight, but Sidious figured it would be best to avoid such a confrontation. The premature death of Tyranus would rob the Confederacy of their leader and make it considerably more difficult to carry out the rest of the plan.

Windu finished his report, and Sidious snapped out of his musings. He responded with practiced poise and knew that the Jedi would be unable to tell he'd barely been listening. "This business with the bad intelligence is a huge error," he said. "I will personally call for an investigation of the Intelligence Agents involved in the matter. We will soon find out what happened."

Yes, several Separatist-sympathetic Intelligence Agents were about to be sacrificed to the Republic Courts. They were guilty, of course, because they really had misreported the location of the generator on the orders of some shadowy "Confederate operatives." What the courts would never know, however, was that the message had actually been sent by the agents in the Intelligence who loyal to Sidious not to the Republic or the Confederacy. The courts would definitely never know that Ytel Boryn—the bright young woman who taken over as Head of Intelligence after the untimely death of her predecessor and hated Jedi enough to do anything to take quiet pop shots at them—had been the one to spearhead the operation under the orders of the Supreme Chancellor.

Windu agreed to allow Sidious to take care of the investigation and hung up. Sidious leaned back in his chair and smiled.

All and all he was pleased with how all this had turned out. The Jedi weren't going to try to investigate on their own—he knew that they wouldn't find anything if they did, but it was always easier to cover things up when you were dealing with the investigation on your own. Ytel Boryn had proven herself capable and useful in ways that her sickening honorable predecessor had not been. Now that Sidious knew she wouldn't bank at committing high treason he could find a host of other things for her to do. She would be a useful asset, both now and when his plans came to fruition.

Most importantly, two leading members of the Jedi Council had seen Anakin Skywalker use the Dark Side. Sidious had no illusions about that scaring Kenobi away, but he had completely sabotaged Windu's trust. The Council would—and probably already did—know about the incident and they would treat their Chosen One with mistrust and possibly even fear. That would do nothing to help heal the wounds festering from the trial of Ahsoka Tano. Anakin would become even more alienated by the Jedi and as a result be even more open to gently applied advice from Sidious.

Sidious leaned back in his chair and his lips twisted into a satisfied smile. His plans were coming together before his eyes.

 _-fin-_

* * *

 **Well, I'm finally done. What did you think? Did I have anyone convinced Ahsoka was really there?**

 **Sorry for the long wait: college happened. I wanted to get this part out last Saturday for my 3** **rd** **Wattpad anniversary, but that obviously didn't work out. At least it's done now, though. Unfortunately, it's really long, though. I probably should have split it in half to make it more manageable, but I said this was going to be a two-shot so I stuck with it.**

 **Sidious was a lot of fun to write. I've only dabbled in his POV a couple times so this was a pretty new thing for me. Hopefully, I captured the essence of his evil, conniving character. Ytel Boryn is an OC would was really created for her brief mention in this story. I don't have a lot of backstory for her, but I think she's an interesting character.**

 **Not sure what my next story is going to be. I have all sorts of half-finished things floating around on my hard drive and someone on Wattpad requested an Obitine story. We'll see what happens, I guess. I'll try to post again soon, but school takes up a lot of my time so I can't make any guarantees.**

 **Also, in other news I've started a Tumblr blog. My user name there is emjenenla. Currently, I've only reposted a couple of my fanfics but I'm throwing around ideas for other things I could use it for so check me out if you want.**

 **Please favorite, review and follow me if you liked this story!**

 **Emjen**


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